Maharashtra Chief Minister on Sunday termed the 18 deaths in the past 24 hours in Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Hospital in Kalwa in Thane as painful and unfortunate and said a high-level committee will conduct a detailed probe.
An official release said the CM, who is in Satara at present, said health minister Tanaji Sawant and Thane guardian minister Sambhuraj Desai were monitoring the situation.
As per information provided by the hospital administration, patients were in very critical condition and some had been referred there by private hospitals, the release quoted the CM as saying.
They were admitted on different days with different ailments, Shinde added.
”A committee under the chairmanship of the state health director will carry out a detailed probe into the deaths. Action will be taken based on this report,” Shinde, who was talking to reporters in Dare in Satara, said.
Desai was present with Shinde there while he interacted with reporters.
Eighteen patients have died in the last 24 hours at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Hospital in Kalwa in Thane, civic commissioner Abhijit Bangar said on Sunday.
These comprise 10 women and eight men, of which six are from Thane city, four from Kalyan, three from Sahapur, one each from Bhiwandi, Ulhasnagar and Govandi (in Mumbai), one patient is from some other place and and one is unidentified, he said.
Twelve of the deceased were above the age of 50, Bangar added. Maharashtra minister Deepak Kesarkar said eight of the 18 patients who died were in ”severe critical state” while undergoing treatment at the hospital.
He said 588 patients were being treated there against a bed capacity of 500.
On the other hand, the district civil hospital has 350 beds of which 150 are unoccupied, he pointed out.
He directed that a board be displayed on the premises to inform people that the civil hospital had not closed down but was operating from the premises of the Mental Health Hospital.
”The capacity of ICU at the Kalwa hospital was increased from 20 to 48. Many private hospitals in the vicinity refer patients to Kalwa hospital when they get serious,” Kesarkar said.
